“Lies” is an American short story written by Ethan Canin in 1988. The short story is about Jack and his surroundings, which is the main character. The text tells of an eighteen year-old boy, who gets kicked out of his house by his father. His father worked every day of his life. Jack has a bad relationship to his parents. The main character works as a projectionist, and in the movie theater, Able’s, where he works, he falls in love with a girl named Katy. The first time he met Katy was at the theater. Jack was together with his friend and suddenly Katy was sitting next to Jack. After the movie they talk a little, and they were going on few dates after that. Katy invites him to her sister’s wedding, and then Jack has to meet her parents. Later we are going to know that they are going to be married in November. It is going to be a fall wedding. Jack believes that they already been to a wedding together with Katy and maybe thanks to that he is not so scared of their own, which is coming up.
The narrator of the short story is Jack, who is eighteen years old. It is a first person narrative. Jack is finish with High School, and he thinks it is a relief. He gets his first job as a movie projectionist. He works in Able’s, and it is the movie theater. He work inside, half the time selling tickets and the other half as the projectionist. He thinks that it is not a bad job (Page 8, line 17-18). We hear about that Jack is going to be married in November with his girlfriend Katy (Page 10, line 81). Later in the short story, Katy seems to think that she is in love with Jack but in fact Jack isn’t really in love yet. When Katy says to Jack that she loves him, then he wanted to tell her that he loved her too, but he couldn’t say it. He doesn’t mind lying, but not about that (Page 9, line 42-43). Jack relates how his mother lied to him when he was young and told him he could be anything he wanted to be. His mother says: "Anybody can rise up to be President of the United States." (Page 8, line 11-12). Jack is now an older boy, so he realizes that his mother lied to him. He realizes that he is limited by his economic position, and he does not seem to have a particularly bright future ahead of him. Jack has a bad relationship to his father, because his father has kicked him out. His father says one thing to him: “Get out” (Page 8, line 2). Jack believes that his father had a right to say it. His father is not a man who says excuse me and pardon me. (Page 8, line 3).
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